Caput Mortuum

Extra deep, opaque, and richly maroon, this Mars color is the deepest and most blue.

An intensely pigmented red Synthetic Iron Oxide, that’s a purplish red brown, the Caput Mortuum mixes cleanly to deepen tones or create distinctive dark neutrals with its cool green complements.

Makes soft bluish grays, with enough white, and is often used to color a white ground because of its cool, neutral undertone.

Cadmiums, cobalts, chromium and all the Mars colors, from yellow to violet, are the bright new inventions of 19th century chemistry that sparked a color revolution in painting, well into the 20th and the modern age. Because we carefully make our paint in small batches and hand-fill our tubes and jars, the Mars colors we offer are as inspiring as the original colors favored by the Pre-Raphaelite painters through the avant-garde movement of Fauvism. Unlike larger paint companies, that mass produce their oil colors with the use of fillers to extend and intentionally weaken the pigment, we, instead, take the extra time, effort, and expense to make our Mars colors full strength. Look to Vasari Classic Artists’ Oil Colors for Mars colors with the most vibrant mass tones possible, the richest opacity, and the greatest tinting strength.